15th.: If They had Only Known
Continued from yesterday.
King Saul had broken the treaty with the Gibeonites.
Therefore, God sent a famine upon Israel (see yesterday).
David asked the Gibeonites what would atone for King Saul’s misdeeds.
The Gibeonites asked that seven descendants of King Saul be hung for his wrong.
It would have been good for David to ask the Lord if he should go along with this method of atonement.
Instead, King David willingly went along with their request, and executed seven descendants of King Saul (2nd Sam. 21:9).
Outwardly, this seemed to violate God’s command in Deuteronomy 24:16, “… neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers.”
If any of King Saul’s descendants had known the word of God, they could have asked King David about Deut. 24:16,
to see what the Lord would say about this punishment.
As lawyers well know, the better one knows the law, and court determined judgements, the more effective they become.
We can apply this same principle, when we make known our requests to the Supreme Judge of the world.
“Give me understanding, and I shall keep the whole law.” (Ps. 119:34a)